Here's version 1 of the guitar. Still some parts and tweaks to get the whole tone circuit right. Currently it's just one global tone knob. The Waldo buffer lives under the pickguard and is fed to the cavity via the blue shielded multi-wire. Last night was his first gig. This guitar is very Jerry sounding.

I have heard Stu play over the years and would agree with the original postregarding the tone of that rig. I would have to guess that the combinationof affordability, convenience and, plug-n-play nature would address the effects/amp/guitar used.

As far as his clean guitar tone with the unmodded SG I did not care for thattone. I recall going to a Melvin Seals with JGB show a few years ago and making a passing comment to die hard Stu fan of "have you ever noticed how hedoesn't select different pickups while he plays that much?" - referring to what I heard to be a singular tone throughout the show. The fan replied "Stu doesn't need to change pickups when he plays!".

the mini toggle simultaneously taps the humbuckers to make them single coils.

Stu said that last night was great. The whole tone was really nailed better than he'd ever had it. What really struck him the most were the low notes. That super clear boinky DiMarzio single coil sound. He said the low riff in Midnight Moonlight was so fun he kept doing it more than he should have. A radical transformation from his standard SG setup. He said he'll be taking this new axe with him on the plane to play the next few JGB shows. He wont have the SMS/McIntosh/JBL rig, but he will have the guitar, OBEL, and pedal setup with him.

Really interesting, Brad ... it's getting to be time to build my Scott Walker guitar and I'm still trying to figure out how to do a three pickup guitar that will let me use it like a Les Paul with the bridge and neck pickups having independent volume and tone controls, and like a Garcia guitar with that middle pickup/master volume.

So did Stu play with the SMS/McIntosh/JBL rig last night? I'd say that was over half of his tone right there and not the guitar or pickups. You can play a stock Strat through that rig and it will sound very "Jerry-ish". I'm sure the new guitar with Super IIs will sound great through his old rig though. At least he can split the coils.

SarnoMusicSolutions wrote:the mini toggle simultaneously taps the humbuckers to make them single coils.

Brad, I've got 2 questions for ya:1 - how do you get around the huge volume drop when cutting to single coil?2 - have you played around with parallel vs. single coils? they are my current favorite due to slightly less drop in volume, more similar tone to series, and never any single coil buzz.

SarnoMusicSolutions wrote:the mini toggle simultaneously taps the humbuckers to make them single coils.

Brad, I've got 2 questions for ya:1 - how do you get around the huge volume drop when cutting to single coil?2 - have you played around with parallel vs. single coils? they are my current favorite due to slightly less drop in volume, more similar tone to series, and never any single coil buzz.

I look at the series humbucker thing as a very desirable volume "boost" that's only useful for pushing a distortion pedal for some extra drive and dirt. Otherwise, the single coil tone IS the main sound and balances nicely with the neck pickup. So that volume change is totally desirable. I adjust the whole setup around the single coil tone. That's the standard. The series is that very occasional effect-only sound.

Years ago I did the parallel, series, single thing. I just never could get the clarity and strength out of the parallel sound. It was less defined than single, and kind of mushy compared to series hb. It was sort of sweet sounding and the humbucking factor was nice, but just never proved to be useful to me. Also it wasn't a Jerry tone either, so I gave up on it.